Some NZ acts who moved to Australia in the ’60s then moved to London to try their luck there. Max and the Meteors went in 1970. Dave Russell (who was also Christchurch born) was in the band at that stage.

In their time in London they played at some famous music venues. One of these was the 3000-seat Rainbow Theatre in Seven Sisters Rd in Finsbury Park. So many great acts played there over the years. The Beatles played there. Jimi Hendrix played there. The Kinks played there too. As did The Who; Pink Floyd and The Clash. Max and the Meteors supported Slade at the Rainbow in the early ’70s.

In 1977 a very late line-up of Max Merritt and the Meteors played at the Music Machine in Camden High St; right opposite the Mornington Crescent Tube Station in London’s north. The Music Machine (re-named the Camden Palace in 1982) is a huge, old-fashioned theatre. It had opened in 1900, was used in the 1920s to host variety acts and in the ’50s & ’60s it was where the BBC recorded The Goons. This was where Bon Scott had been drinking just hours before he died in 1980.

Reference: Rock’n’Roll London Max Wooldridge, New Holland: London 2002